Container treatment machines typically include rotors that carry containers around a circular path. These rotors often have treatment positions around their periphery for treating the bottles. For example, in a filling machine, the treatment position would be a filling head. In a capping machine, the treatment position would be a capping head.
Many of these treatment positions suspend a container. This poses a difficulty when the rotor rotates at high speed. In particular, such rotation leads to significant centrifugal forces that directly affect the containers. These forces cause the containers' bases to swing radially outward relative to the machine axis. As a result, the containers hang at an inclined angle during treatment.
This inclined orientation can greatly impede proper treatment, particularly in the case of capping machines and filling machines. In capping machines, the inclined orientation of the containers can result in skewed caps. In filling machines, the inclined orientation can lead to incomplete filling and contamination from spilled product.
The inclined orientation affects other rotary machines. For example, in inlet and outlet transfer stars, the inclined orientation results in containers not being properly transferred, jamming, breaking, and/or backing up.